


Taken Away (Wild Horses), November 12, 1973

by MissAtomicBomb77



Series: For the Greater Good, Let's Do the News [22]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2013-12-03
Packaged: 2018-01-07 09:46:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1118434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissAtomicBomb77/pseuds/MissAtomicBomb77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie knows that he’s about to take a beating, he can just tell this is the way it’s going to go down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taken Away (Wild Horses), November 12, 1973

November 12, 1973  
1:42pm  
Charlie and Lee’s Apartment  
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Charlie couldn’t remember what it was that was said that made her smile. He knew that he said something, something clever, something witty and something that was in that moment perfect. She’s sitting on the bed now legs crossed beneath her, looking down at belly. She was doing that more frequently now, as if she was trying to see if it looked any different. She didn’t, it was entirely too soon to know anything. He’d also catch her holding her hands over stomach as if maybe she could feel something. She couldn’t, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

Lee didn’t feel any different. She thought that maybe being pregnant would make her feel different. Maybe she hoped that she would feel different, so that she would just know for sure. Charlie wasn’t stupid and she’s almost certain he knew before she did. They had been living together for three or so years now and he had gently implied that he would have been a fool if he hadn’t noticed… the timing of things. It had never really occurred to her until he had said that if she thought about it, he did pay attention. Something sweet in the apartment on those weeks to take the edge off and made sure that she drank plenty of water if she was going out.

There was no real way to know for sure, not yet. This could be her sixth week, this could be her first. She could simply be late, but she could set her watch to her cycle and now knew Charlie could too. This was very much something, she knew it. Not something, someone. Someone whom she already knew was going to be as stubborn as all get out and smart as the devil. She poked at her lower stomach now, knowing it wasn’t going to do anything, but she was just wanting to feel something.

She heard him snickering now. “What?” She said.

“Do you want me to listen?” He said smiling stupidly from the kitchen table.

She looks at him, a bit naïve. “Do you think you would be able to hear anything?”

He shakes his head in the negative and laughs openly now. “No,” he responds. “I think you’re going to keep poking and prodding yourself for the next eight or so months. Then at some point, you’re going to get poked and prodded in return.” He gets up from the table and comes to her as she sits on the bed. He finds himself kneeing in front of her, wrapping his arms around her lower back.

She leans back and he tilts his head and presses himself against her lower stomach. They are both quiet for a moment before he pulls away and looks at her. “Well Charlie?” She asks him.

“I didn’t hear anything that wasn’t already there. Not that I was expecting anything, Lee, I just wanted you to stop worrying.”

“Do you think it’s a boy or a girl?” She asks, looking at him as he nuzzles in, continuing to hug her.

“It doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s strong and healthy. All ten fingers and ten toes. Oh, and please let that baby be as smart as the mother and not as stupid as the father.”

“Well the last one was a given.” She’s looking down at him now, broad smile.

Charlie looks up at her and she’s just an angel, beaming down at him.

The moment is then sharply contrasted by the noise of the door being kicked in and the rush of four strangers entering their sanctuary. Charlie breaks away from Lee and just looks at them stupidly for a moment before he can get to his feet. Men in black suits and he knows that this is it. He just wasn’t expecting to happen in this way and for it to happen now. He thought that they would have more time together before her father’s hired hands would appear to take her away.

The obvious leader of the group looks at Lee, who is now up on her knees on the bed, her face determined as she was holding the footboard of the bed, her knuckles white. “Time to go home Leona,” he says.

Arms are grabbing her and she’s trying not to let go of the bed, but she’s failing. For his part, Charlie is trying to grab one of the men’s arms, trying to pry his arm off of Lee. His reward for intervention is something cold and hard to the back of his head, forcing him down. Nightstick, perhaps as he crashes to the ground. The world is spinning now and he’s unable to push himself up off the ground and all he can think is that he wants to see her before they take her.

Her screaming his name starts then and she sees him on the ground trying feebly to move, to lift his head and to push his body up. She’s been lifted off the bed and Lee’s making it damned hard for the two of the suits to keep a hold of her, but unfortunately their brute strength was winning the battle.

Charlie knows that he’s about to take a beating, he can just tell this is the way it’s going to go down. He decides then to reach into his pocket and pick out the soft envelope, the one he’s been carrying around for years with the simple gold band in it. He sees her shoulder bag, a mere foot or so away from him, he reaches his arm out now and just manages to push the envelope into the bag. Once he’s done that, he makes a real effort to stand now, despite the protest of his head.

He’s kept down by flying feet to his stomach and his chest. He does lift his head for one moment and they are carrying her out the door now. She’s so focused on trying to get out of their grip and yelling some string of profanities at them that she doesn’t look back. She doesn’t see Charlie look at up her and in an instant, they’re gone. They’re in the hall and she’s gone, literally removed from his life like a chess piece from a board.

Arms pull him up from behind now and he’s looking at the leader now, some nondescript secret agent wannabe type. “Mr. Lansing would like me to give you a token of his appreciation, Mr. Skinner.” Left hook, right hook and Charlie was certain that his nose was broken as his head whipped violently from one direction to the next. The arms that had held Charlie up at that point simply let go and Charlie crashed to the floor, all pain and blood.

The leader grabbed her handbag from the ground and her sandals that were there next to it before he and his companion ambled out of the apartment. 

Charlie claws at the ground now trying to pull his body up because he knows he needs some sort of medical attention, but is unable to do it. He just crumbles back onto the ground and the tears come unbidden down his cheeks, mixing with the blood and mess that he now is.

He tells himself weakly that sending her home was the right thing to do, for her sake and for the sake of the baby. They needed to be safe and getting her out of Cambodia was the only way it was going to happen. He wasn’t going to let her risk her life and the life of an unborn child. They needed to be safe. They needed to be protected and this was the best way he knew how.

He wished he could have saved her years ago, saved her from her suffering in captivity. Charlie also knows that this is the unforgivable thing. She’s going to figure it out quickly, if her father doesn’t tell her that it was him and he knows that she will never want him in her life again. Maybe it’s for the best, because he never had anything to offer her. She has the ability to claim the world with her charm and he’s nothing more than an ex-marine with a bad temper and hatred for social injustice.

There is no future in which they could ever exist together, he tells himself.

That, he thinks, is a fact.


End file.
